1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of instructional writing paper, and more particularly, is directed to an improvement in the format of spaced lines making up instructional writing paper.
2. Background of the Related Art
The present disclosure is directed to instructional writing paper for teaching hand writing skills to children who are learning to read and write. The instructional writing paper is also particularly useful to those with special needs to assist in their learning process. Common practice in the aid of such instruction is the use of specifically formatted lined paper. The lined writing paper generally includes horizontal parallel guiding lines spaced at various increments along a writing face. The guiding lines are generally divided into two equal parts by a horizontal dotted or dashed line which is designed to guide the children in the proper formation of upper and lower case letters as well as numerals.
Various kinds of such lined writing paper have heretofore been used in the instruction of writing skills to children. Typical among such instructional writing paper is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,638,332 to Jones. The Jones writing paper includes a series of wide colored bands separated by a series of manuscript areas. The separation between the manuscript areas and the colored bands is designed to help focus the attention of a child to write within the manuscript areas. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,082 to Niquette discloses instructional writing paper including separate modules containing three contiguously shaded colored bands. The Niquette patent utilizes the center colored band as a starting point for writing rather than on a separate line. As such, the ascending or descending portions of the letters are formed on upper or lower colored bands surrounding the center colored band. Likewise, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,256 to Moskowitz, instructional writing paper employing writing areas consisting of two colored adjacent bands is described. The writing bands are each separated by a spaced non-writing area. The Moskowitz patent discloses consecutive sheets of instructional writing paper including colored writing bands having a decreasing degree of color intensity until finally a complete fade-out of color is reached.
Heretofore, the advantages offered by instructional writing paper have primarily been based on writing paper containing broad colored bands which are used to separate writing and non-writing portions. Such devices, however, are not conducive to real world writing habits which primarily include the use of plain, non-colored, lined paper. In addition, the formation of capital letters, numerals and certain lower case letters such as: b, d, f, h, k, l and t have been difficult since there has been no reference point to indicate where to begin or end the formation of these letters and numerals.
In view of the foregoing drawbacks of previously known instructional writing paper, it would be desirable to provide instructional writing paper and associated methods of use for using the presently described writing paper which will instruct a child or mentally handicapped person to write in a proper format. Accordingly, the present disclosure overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art by providing instructional writing paper that is primarily void of wide colored bands and which utilizes plain writing paper that is formatted to closely resemble paper normally used in the real world. The present disclosure also solves the problems associated in forming capital letters, numerals and certain lower case letters by providing visual as well as verbal/audio cues which acts as a frame of reference to guide children in forming specific letters and numerals.
The embodiments herein disclosed throughout the present disclosure achieve the intended purposes, objects, and advantages through a new, useful and unobvious combination of component elements, at a reasonable cost to manufacture and by employing readily available materials.